Please actually read our replies

[depechemodefan]

People write to us/send emails asking for obits.

One person made an inquiry: How do I secure a copy of obituaries published in the Houston Chronicle newspapere ? Does the libray provide that service for a fee ? If so,how much ? If not, is there a Genealogy Society in Houston who provides that service ?
Please furnish details. Thanks

We replied: ....We will be happy to look for an obituary for you. We will need ... We only search for individuals who died in Houston or Harris County.(note: boldfaced by me when I posted this here)

If we are successful in our search, we will inform you of any photocopying charges - $2.00 handling fee per item (such as one date of a newspaper or periodical) + $1.00 per page printed.

This idiot asked for 5 obits, 2 of them in "Jefferson County."

Second case
When we do the research, we reply to the patron with a price and "If you would like a scanned photocopy, please send a check or money order for" and "If you would like to pay by credit card, please call ..." This idiot sends cash. So I send the cash back and our standard reply with the important parts underlined.

[Trishlovesdolphins]

Dear Lord. He's lucky you didn't pocket the money and tell him you never got it. A lesser person might have.

[depechemodefan]

Dear Lord. He's lucky you didn't pocket the money and tell him you never got it. A lesser person might have.

I actually could pocket the money and sent the item. Problem is these items are not kept track of. A lot of times a manager will come to me and say, "was this sent to the patron? He says he never got it." The manager never bothers to look at our payment log to compare money received with things sent. They never bother to look at the job logs to see if we marked "payment received, item sent xx/xx/xxxx."

The person who does the accounting doesn't go by any log, just gets what is in the money bag (checks, money orders and credit card slips) and send an account to the businss office.

Though it's not enough money to treat myself to a sandwich. I can see, though, the idiot calling us/emailing us/sending a letter telling us we have to take the cash, it's the law/its' inconvienent for him to send a check or something. And this idiot owns a geneology research business, so he must have some type of business bank account.

And I can see the manager caving in and telling us to send him his item for free.